GUNTHROAT

As I am feeling this blog is becoming more about personal things, I have started a new blog http://dasonomics.blogspot.com/. I hope my regular readers will be interested to read the general issues that I write in that blog. I am preparing my first post for the new blog and it will be put up soon. As far as this blog is concerned I have decided to start writing short stories(unlike the last post which was a bit satirical). Hoping everyone would appreciate it.

Sunday- The birth

I can’t open my eyes, but it seems my mind can tell, there is something wrong with the way the world sees me. Everyone around me is devious and is waiting for an opportunity to hunt me down in the one week I am alive. I don’t want to fly and for heaven’s sake give me some privacy.

Monday- The learning

The sun’s rays are hurting me and the heat in the nest is unbearable. Why was I born? All the birds around me are trying to start a conversation with me. I don’t want to listen to the empty chatter .My mother said the prudence is the highest virtue and she would guide me throughout the week. The whole week I would try to avoid bad company and will maintain my reputation intact.

Tuesday- The outburst

Today on my third day in the world, a wily bird tried to socialize. It said it knows me from the day I was born and my voice is truly captivating (which incidentally I am aware of). The wily bird is very famous for its grandiloquent gestures and I hate it when it becomes physically intimate to me. I hate when the wretched one touches my body.

PS: My mother also hates him

Wednesday-The friend

Every bird in the forest is attracted to my friend, but it is attracted only to me. Maybe it likes the fact that I am a prude. Prudes are so rare these days. I think I am a prized catch for my friend. I sing like a peacock and look like a nightingale. But my friend is always courting me and I don’t like that. The last thing I want in the three days left for me in the world is a bad name. Today my friend invited me to fly with the flock. I was shocked and rejected the offer outright. What a shame....whew......

PS: My mom hates my friend too

Thursday- The epiphany

Today I peeked out of my nest and saw the beautiful forest. I wanted to fly at that moment. The sun was beautiful in the morning sky. I was alone on the tree and saw the birds from another tree flying off. I joined them and it was nice. We saw rivers and mountains in our flight. The new birds are so warm and I spent the night with them on the topmost branch of a new tree. They were all excellent mates and I am sure I will bear good children like me.

PS: I can’t see mom. Can someone tell me where it is (but please don’t bring it here)??

Friday- Memories

I saw the wily bird today when I was with my new friends. It looked so nice. Though I am now in a different tree it greeted me. It is so nice of it to have remembered me after 2 days .I hope it will meet someone as good as me and will end up on a tree as high as mine. As I was in the middle of procreation I didn’t ask it about my neighbors in the old tree.

PS: I laid 20 eggs today. I ate 5 of them and my mates ate 5. I will groom the rest like the way my mother groomed me, truly in the prudish way.

Saturday- The death

I felt weak today, but I flew to my old nest. I did not see my friend there. I was so eager to tell it about my new mates. I talked to all the birds, I avoided 5 days ago. They are all so good mannered. I went to see my mom, but it is dead. I saw the beautiful evening sun, and knew how foolish I was to scorn it on the day I was born. Then I flew to my new home where I saw my mates all dead and my children trying to open their eyes. I flew to the river to drink water when suddenly I felt my wings were powerless. Before I fell into the river, to its depths forever, I saw my reflection for the first and last time. It said to me ‘My name is women. My opinions are as strong as a bamboo. It will never break. But I am flexible. I can bend as much as I like. My ethics are for sale. I live for a week and lie for 7 days. Half a week I play a victim and the rest I use to create victims. Help me from you, who is about to tell the truth. Feed me with lies. Pamper me so that I can predate on you. My name is woman, and those who disrespect me are cursed to live in hell. ’

It was 10 years ago that I danced to the tunes of ‘Thriller’, infront of a big audience (My friends in college would die of heart attack if they hear this. If they know one thing for sure about me, then it would be the fact that I am a pathetic dancer), it hasn’t been much time since I nearly fell into a sewage tank of a plywood company when trying to get away from the watchman, not long since I nearly got arrested for drunken driving when the driver of the car tried to clean the window with his elbow forgetting the steering. How many tourists visiting Goa have visited the historical Calangute police station???How many of you know real life unnikuttans who asks their grandmothers at the age of 3 whether they did tubectomy(yes vinu this is the new story I got from your chorifyin past). And most importantly how many of you have the most wonderful cousins who are your best friends for more than 20 years.

1 The whistle

I saw Ranjith chettan(he occasionally gets angry when I call him Ranjith, so for once I am adding the chettan suffix ) for the first time as I can remember outside Trivandrum airport when I was 4. In the taxi back home I gave him a whistle and said it can stop buses, we have been friends since then. We have done all the crazy things in the world .Impersonating the characters of the cult movie ‘orkkapurathu’ was one of our favourite sport. This artform named ‘pottankali’ has been our family’s sport for decades. My favourite memory of Ranjith is when he was hit by cycle at night. All my elder cousins were quarrelling with the cycle driver when I suddenly noticed Ranjith’s absence. I looked all around but could not spot him. Finally I saw him searching for his mundu(dhoti) under the cycle tyre. He has religiously avoided mundu since then. All my wonderful summer vacations were with him. We played everything from cricket to ice hockey. Our summer vacation usually ended with pooram vedikettu when we would stay on top of the tallest tower in thrissur with Praveen (ranjith’s neighbour who too became my very close friend) to view the visual extravaganza from 3 in the morning. Once we got the top floor all for ourselves (because Praveen owned the place) on pooram day and we literally turned that place upside down. It was most memorable summer vacation .

2 The chori...

He used to be an anathema to me in the past. We used to fight for everything from mock wwf to getting a side seat in an autorickhshaw. The most irritating of all my cousins is a mellow cat these days. I have seen so many dramatic transformations in my life and from all the people who reinvented themselves to be more acceptable , the vibe I got was they prefer to be the old villain and tell f*** u to everyone. I am sure Vinu is frustrated to death to be the good Samaritan.

What should I say about my eldest nephew(who saw this world and its ways before his ammavan)???I don’t know when he started to pour into my serene life like a hailstorm and stand on my nerves like a bulldozer. He might be the first person to whom I would have addressed all the swear words. We were never good friends till we started practising pottankali(where we again fought to get the lead role.Incidentally ranjith always had a compromise putting him up as the lead). But destiny made us both engineers (think of the situation when worst enemies get stranded in a deserted island, they have to make peace to survive right???) forcing us to cooperate. But I took revenge by making him jealous of all the glossy stories involving women (which were all exaggerated and mostly concocted) in my college. Palakkad was so devoid of women that his unease and enthusiasm to my fake stories earned him the title KADI.

3 Appu(nothing describes him better)

How many of you are lucky enough to live the American pie series(the later and more bitchy ones). Think of the fourth part (the naked mile, especially the first scene), that is almost the story of appu. Almost all the hilarious things in that series have happened to this young man. This conclusion was proved time and again with strong evidentiary backing (instead of just word of mouth publicity). He is one person in our group whom we truly envy. His attitude and guts are ineffable. I can’t count the number of times he played the elder in our group. Appu never was the youngest or the novice in our group, he still guides us poor ignorant humans in an array of subjects. Most of his stories are more hilarious than the others, I mentioned here. But unfortunately I cant post it here. He was and remains to be an enigma for all of us.


If I write on about the fun we had as a group, it would soon outnumber the posts I have put in this blog. Each day we were together deserves to be called legendary (to borrow Barney’s dictionary) . Our relations were tested time and again by the fragilities of bigger family tensions. But we were lucky and strong that we survived. Sometimes God makes gifts for you even before you are born. My parents, my sister are among those gifts. I am lucky to have one more gift in the form of my cousins (forgive the cliché, but its true).

The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behavior
- Taleb

During September 2008 I wrote 3 posts which I never published in this blog. One of the posts is still in my drafts. All of them dealt with the sudden breakdown of a very close relationship, I had with a person. Finally I decided not to write something on that bad period(of shock and anger). Then I recently saw just in front of me two of my very close friends moving apart. They seem to have a reason to fight and never to be friends again, but for me their issue is something which could be solved, if tried. But my post is not about my fight or their fight. It is about this thought that always crosses my mind, why do we fight, why do we hate and hate so intensively our closest friends. Why cant we remain friends(not close friends of course) just friends and never foes. Why do best friends end up worst foes....

For me in the short span of 23 years I managed to alienate 2 of my very close friends and I am not even in talking terms with them. I do not want to be judgmental by passing a verdict on whose mistake was it anyway. The most apparent explanation for this dichotomy of love and hate towards the same person is that our expectation from people close to us is very high. There is no room for even a small let down. We cannot tolerate even an iota of infidelity from our close friends. So when they cheat like everyone in the world(it is very normal and human....) we act like Caesar stabbed by Brutus from behind and give a Mark Antony like speech(mostly we lecture our mind)victimizing ourselves. We find all the reasons in the world to justify our losses as a result of our friend's actions. This aggravates our pain and eventually the hatred towards the person concerned. Then the hatred level is maintained by occasional mud slinging at each other as an attempt to vindicate our stands. Thus are we really wrong at remaining foes, why cant we act like adults and stop fighting. Why cant we be best friends again and trust each other like never before.I beg to differ only on the last point......

My point here is after a colossal letdown sometimes the people who are magnanimous enough to take up the initiative and try to mend the issue forget in their self righteous air that cheating creates cynicism and cynicism goes on to become distrust. Friendship can never go to higher levels when we don't trust a person. Caesar and Brutus can be friends again in another life, but Caesar will always watch his back when Brutus is around. So for Brutuses to complain why Caesars are always extra cautious and in the process a little indifferent when they are around would be frivolous. For Caesars to confide all his thoughts,secrets and tactics to his newly forgiven friend Brutus would be just idiotic. You can be friends with a person who stabbed you from behind if you are kindhearted, but even Jesus will not dare to sleep with Judas once again after the ordeal he went through.

Finally before I end I am not characterizing anyone as Caesar and Brutus or worst Jesus and Judas. The point is for us, simple mortals we equate ourselves to Jesus or Caesar when we are on the receiving end. We cannot love and trust someone who cheated us like never before, but we can be friends again, but just friends.....

There are two kinds of men. The first kind does not fall in love until he has seen how the girl eats a sandwich, how she combs her hair, what sort of nonsense she cares about, why she is angry with her father and what stories people tell about her. The second kind of men-I am in this category- can fall in love with a woman only if he knows next to nothing about her.

Excerpts from SNOW by Orhan Pamuk.

Some may have heard about the practice of muttaruckal in temples in north kerala. For those who don’t, it is a ritual that is done before the deity wherein a coconut is broken by the chief priest on a rock. If the coconut splits exactly into two pieces of same dimension, it is considered as a good sign. Normally the priests who are experts in the process (honed by practice) seldom misses the bull’s eye. But in rare cases the coconut gets broken before you like the world that has been breaking before you for 1 year (irregular and abnormal). When the scene repeats not once but twice (mutually independent events, what are the odds??) you start thinking, the whole divinity is conspiring against you. These are moments when you are so confounded by the magnanimity of the event that you stop thinking rationally. Sometimes I think it would have been better if I could convince myself about the non existence of a supernatural force guiding my life. But I am unable to do that, I know there is a God (my guardian angel, sort of selfish just for me) and He is not helping me. Actually He is irritating me (not punishing). I used to converse with God like a friend, sometimes when I feel lonely driving my bike on a rainy day. But these days the conversations are becoming more formal. I pay obeisance to him when I pass by a temple just for the sake of it (because it is a habit), not because I feel like doing so. HE is merely somebody who was my friend, not anymore, someone whose latest manifestations are always for doing you harm. It is not like I have become an atheist, but it is worse than that. It is not because of one sign (in the form of that crazy coconut splitting, I know these are superstitions) but the atmosphere of hostility from top is hard to ignore.

GOD HELP US

PS: Mr Sarkozy now we know why you want to ban burkha in France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After some serious introspection I have come to the conclusion that, I am being a coward in not writing what is happening with my life for the past 6 months. I am sure there will be atleast one thing in this blog that will be unknown to my regular readers.

So let me start with the most painful exercise of writing down an account of the harrowing first half of 2009, I had. It all started with a dismal 1500th rank in JMET in the beginning of January. I hoped that I would get a better rank and the result obviously irritated me. If I thought that was the worst it can get, a lot more was in the offing. I could virtually see my metamorphosis into an object of disgrace to everyone around me. I started to hate everything around me, everyone who loved and cared for me. Sometimes I would pick up a fight with completely childish things with my father. I started getting offended easily especially in conversations with my sister. I didn’t have the guts to talk to gopi chacha who took care of me like a son during my days in Bangalore. I failed him completely and that made me hate myself more than anything else.

Then I applied for civil services and didn’t get the acknowledgement card for my application. So I thought my application somehow got rejected and started the dreamless slumber which continues till date. Mindtree had given me the joining date as April 13th but they extended it to October with reduced salary. Then I thought CTS would call me but they too gave me a distant December 28th as the joining date. After Mindtree fiasco Lakshman convinced me to take up a partime job in Time. Half heartedly I decided to go for it.

The first interview in Time was on February 14th the Valentine’s Day. I reached Ernakulam, but the person supposed to interview me was having a meeting till noon. So nowhere to go I went to the marine drive and started reading a book. It was the longest 4 hours of my life. Finally I was called well past noon and was interviewed. The head of time centre told me to come and take a mock class later that week. Around the same time I had a big fight with one of my family members pertaining to an appointment that I missed for the planning of my cousin’s marriage. So with a really troubled mind I took a mock class in Time and I was relieved when I heard that I got the assignment as a part time faculty. Lakshaman insisted on telling it to my parents and I hesitatingly allowed it which later proved to be a big mistake. From that day started my long wait for a call from a Time. But they never called. Lakshman had also asked whether I was willing to take Maths for engg entrance. I told him I have forgotten all the 12th standard maths and I would like to talk to the concerned faculty before reaching a decision. Quite surprisingly the entrance wallahs called me and told me to come over. After 5 mock classes (they called it procedure) and orientation sessions (which inspired me whether to apply for call centres rather than attending maths classes), I was given a schedule of sessions I had to take. One and a half months I taught and positively hated teaching something which was retrogressive for my career. The only silver lining was the pay cheque (actually a decent amount because I had 5 day weeks and was paid per hour in a 6 hour workday). Finally when I got the cheque, I ran to the bank to cash it. It was going to be the best moment in 2009. But bad luck stuck again when I found that it was a crossed cheque and the money could be taken only through my account. The only account I had was in Trivandrum, a joint account with my father in district treasury. The most inefficient bank in the whole financial world took exactly 24 days to process my cheque and let me smell my first salary. If that wasn’t enough the classes in time ended after Kerala entrance and I was unemployed again. When I came back my sister convinced me to study something and joined CCDS for civil service coaching the same place which I was planning to join exactly one year ago and decided not to because of my ‘tentative’ joining dates.

Asha told me to do some certification course and I joined SCJP programme again after 2 years and nearly 6000 already spend. SCJP brings back memories of times spent in KR bakes and Shawarma places under the pretext of learning java. Finally the six of us who joined the course unanimously decided to discontinue it after it was proven that we were too busy with enjoying our college days to attend classes every day. I had to pay for the course this time because I felt it was absolutely deplorable for even a monster like me to ask my father to pay for the same course twice. I know that my friends will call me and mock me the moment they see this post. But all I have to say in my defence is my situation demands all that is remotely necessary to fetch me a job. I would have laughed if I was asked to do a course like this 1 year ago, but I really don’t remember the old me.

So in the morning from 6 30 I sit in classes of perverted narcissists (with few exceptions) bragging on and on about their knowledge and vision of life. Then I go to a centre to learn java from a squinted woman who it seems was my worst enemy in my previous life. She caters a bag full of prejudice towards me and I hate her with the same intensity that she hates me. I am impressed by my tenacity which helped me survive 20 days under her debilitating presence. But I expect a bitter showdown in the near future.

So that is pretty much my life now. At this moment I would like to thank my family (especially Asha), two of my all time friends Hari and Lakshman for being there and never hurting me. Also the only happy moments in 2009 were sreejith chettan's marriage and the fun I had with my cousins after it. I don’t know how I would have managed without these great people. Looking back I see myself lucky to have friends who are there for me when I need them most. There will be 100 men to say cheers to you but there will be only a few to bring a cheer on your face.

The endorsement and support given to the Khilafat Movement(for reinstating the caliphate in Turkey) by the Congress remains the turning point in Indian History. It was this event which chained the Indian Muslim forever to the complex global Islamic Diaspora. Khilafat movement became the catalyst for pro Pakistani agitations across the country. Whenever a political party in India brings up an emotional issue(but mostly irrelevant) to gain political mileage among a particular community it sets the stage for turbulent times ahead. History has shown us numerous examples of catastrophic consequences of pampering the religious right. America learned it the hard way with experiences in Afghanistan, iran and Iraq. India learned it with the Shah bano case and subsequent demolition of Babri masjid. But I wonder why the erudite and sensible men of communist party made the same mistake in the 2009 loksabha elections in kerala. It was one of those campaigns which made me sick. I saw more posters of Palestine refugees and tasleema nasreen in ernakulam than the vypeen water issue or the infrastructure woes of cochin city. An extremist who was famous for his inflammatory speeches against the hindus was paraded for all the campaigns of the Marxist party (I don’t want to call him a terrorist like the media here, as it is not proved, but he is a fundamentalist for sure). The Marxist party stooped to despicable depths to woe Muslim mind. They called the nuclear deal anti muslim, they brought in Iran issue to garner votes while easily forgetting the price raise issue, the security lapses which resulted in bomb blasts across the country.

I expected a Hindu backlash in kerala like the way it happened against the congress in 87( after shah bano case) . But something interesting happened. Muslims at large voted against this unsolicited sponsorship of communist party for their fight against global isolation. Muslim mind in kerala was mature enough to understand that if they fall for this appeasement politics they will be further isolated from the society. Last time when they fell for appeasement from the congress party after Shah Bano case, a scourge was born which slowly divided the Indian society and painted Muslims as terrorists. Last time when they voted for petty appeasement politics they got BJP, they didn’t want to create another one. I salute all the muslims who voted against this outrageous communal politics.

A candidate of CPM who lost this time once compared Mata Amritanandamayi, a popular spiritual leader to Silk Smitha(the actress famous for her skin show in movies). Though I am not a follower of Amritananadamayi, I was wounded by this open desecration of a Hindu Symbol by a prominent leader. The party leaders used to openly offend priests (of all religions) by using very bad language till very recently.

This time the whole dynamics changed. A young Turk famous for her vandalism during the days of CPM’s crusade against self financing colleges in Kerala shamelessly visited every Bishop houses (the de jure owners of the self financing colleges she attacked) in her constituency seeking votes. She created 3 orkut accounts to ask votes comfortably forgetting that her party used to conduct strikes against computers. When CPM put up posters of her opponent having dinner with tasleema nasreen, her opponents put up posters of her garlanding Tasleema. One question that remains is who in Kerala really care what Tasleema writes???? .This Young Turk’s opponent who is considered as one of the most influential leaders among power brokers in Delhi became a central minister after his electoral success. A funny rumour that I heard about this minister was when another wannabe congress candidate (who came up from the students wing of congress) went to Delhi with multiple recommendation letters from Bishops of Kerala, the central Minister went with just one letter to the party high command and that letter was from the Pope. But I can’t vouch for the veracity of this rumour. Finally as a cherry on the top of the sundae of hypocrisy, another communist party in Kerala conducted a shilanyas for the spiritual Guru of the prominent Nair community in a private property reminiscing the days of ramajanmabhoomi movement. This happened in the capital city when the communist party junior finding that their incumbent MP was more interested in football commentary and movie acting fielded a candidate with the right surname to attract the majority caste. But soon they found out that simply a surname won’t fetch votes for a person put up against a scholar who got doctorate at the age of 22. So they took up a dormant issue, the demand to create a memorial at the birth place of the majority community’s spiritual leader. But interestingly once the Communist party leader took up the issue every party leader including the scholar fawned at the might of this community. But for those who dreamt of making kerala a laboratory of caste and communal politics like Bihar or Gujarat, met with the same fate of the Behenji who thought erecting Ambedhkar memorials (sometimes her own statues) translates to electoral success.

So hats off to malayali you showed the world once again that you are different............

All the people who have met me in my lifetime would swear one thing about me; I am very much passionate and emotional about what I believe in. The last one year has been grossly unkind to me. I am jobless, at the bottommost point in my life so far and by far going through the least happening period. But I was able to see life in a whole new light quite unlike what I used to. I never used to lose an argument. Neither my friends nor my family members could tolerate me arguing. As Hari once said when I sense I am losing my case in a conversation I get angry thus preventing myself to be on the losing side. Last year just after our college we had a Global Leaders Summit in IIM Ahmedabad (it was a mock UN session). I had this argument with two of these hot chicks (my rule remains blonds are fools or simply beauty and brain can never coexist in a female body). I couldn’t tolerate them getting the focus of the group with their perfect accent and cute faces. So I figured out their flaws which was simply the absolute ignorance about UN( which by the way is not a cardinal sin) and its history. I brought up bait which they promptly caught in the session after our argument and as expected they were made to apologize on their complete lack of knowledge about UN proceedings. I remember relishing the shame on their cute faces. It was just one of those instances where I took an argument to a personal level and made a diatribe which would make any person think twice before having a conversation with me.
Fast forward one year and I have patiently listened to some of the worst insults showered upon me and that too without rebutting any of those. Some of them were so bad and harrowing that when my friends heard about them they were appalled by my numbness towards such verbal abuses. Many of them came from people close to me, which makes these vilification more special. I don’t know why I am listening to them. One thing is sure; I have started taking things more lightly. The bottom line is when you lose self respect you don’t care what people think or say about you. I don’t believe in the theory that ‘what you are is what you think about yourself’. The thoughts, comments and suggestions of the society have a profound effect on your character and mental state. Once you see that these things don’t have an effect, you should conclude that you don’t care where you are going. It is like catching a wrong train due north thinking it was going east and turning a deaf ear to all the fellow travellers who are telling you the train is going west. Their comments or instructions may be wrong, but you should atleast weigh the possibility of you being wrong.
A different way to look at it is I am trying to endure the pain rather than fight it. It is called fatalism. It is a really bad belief where you attribute all your successes and failure to destiny. A fatalist is a wimp who doesn’t believe in his strength, who cares least about failures and successes. I don’t make it a point to continue an argument or take it forward with people other than my really close friends. This is a huge departure from my real character. I see myself confused unable to figure why I am like this these days. I am not writing this as a sequel to my earlier depressing posts. It is an earnest attempt to figure out what has happened.

Has the gunthroat gone silent
But why, the gun is supposed to shoot
Has the gun gone out of bullets?
Has it run out of targets?
Has it gone rusty?
Or is it simply because the gun thinks it has turned to a feather?????

After 4 years in MEC I came to the conclusion that the toughest business in the world is to run a canteen near a government college. How many people came and went attempting to feed the gourmets and gourmands of our college?? Invariably all failed. The reason, they never knew that these gourmets and gourmands had a strange aversion to pay money for the food they ate.

When I joined the college there was a locked up building reminiscing the haunted houses of funny horror movies. The gates were closed but it had a shabby board indicating it used to be a kitchen. Later we came to know that it was college property and once housed canteen. Then we had two hotels in the vicinity of our college, one named hotel.com (to enthuse the supposed nerds of our college) and the other without a name but fondly called gopettan’s (named after the owner). Hotel.com served all type of food from biriyani to ordinary meals. I never used to go to these places when I was in the first year fearing ragging. In the second year when we came to the college Hotel.com rechristened itself into Shangri la (tech gave way to spirituality) and had a new management. That was the time when I started visiting these places. Lakshman used to have this strange habit of asking onion salad for every dish he ordered. Thus he became notorious among the waiters of Shangri la. At that point of time there was no billing system in that hotel. People who ate used to go to the counter and tell what they ate. Some of my enterprising friends took advantage of this practise and never paid for the lime juice they drank after the food. One particular friend of mine said once to me that it was not the idea of saving money that prompted him to do this but the adventure of cheating the hotel owner who sat on the cash counter.
Though the biriyani and breads where tasty in Shangri la the meals were never good. Thus I decided to check out gopettan’s. It was basically a house converted into a hotel. Though it was a very cosy place and the food delicious, space constraints made eating an excruciating experience. But some of the girls in my class always went there to have food. Speaking about girls, some of them never visited any of these restaurants. They followed hygiene religiously. A ‘lady’(who later got the name hygiene m....) once asked the boy in a juice shop whether the glasses were washed with hot water and dettol before serving. She infact came to have a lime juice which costs 3 rupees. Another girl never came to the restaurants nearby the college, but on desperate occasions visited the coffee house in CUSAT. Once I saw the funniest practice of hygiene by this lady. She actually sipped the juice once but did not take it in, then she unsipped (pardon the grammar) the juice in an effort to clean the inner part of the straw. This act became famous in our circle with the name straw cleaning with even photographs being taken of this.
In coffee house Lakshman used to ask for the side dishes again and again for the Rs 12 meals. After asking it for the fourth time the waiter losing patience gently warned him that there is a limit to it for the money he paid. Lakshman saw it as an insult and swore that he will never have meals from the coffee house. Back in college Shangri la aka hotel.com again changed the name to razhakiya. This time they introduced a super alert waiter who ran with a bill book to every table to save the hotel from the fate of previous managements. Around the same time kudumbasree group (a government backed association that helps women earn money), leased the haunted house of college and started a canteen. The food was subsidised for students and delicious too. The problem was women always are applauded for culinary expertise but the fall far behind men in management(especially serving and accounts). The premature closure of the college canteen was a big shock for us. After that canteen closed, the administration in our college with strong left leanings came to the conclusion that the particular building earmarked for canteen was jinxed and started building a new canteen. As the building progressed various rumours started spreading like the new complex might be a coffee house or even a cafe coffee day. The love birds who expected a cafe coffee day were shattered when a board came up on the new building. Thus we got the second canteen building which was basically smaller than the older one.
In between I should mention another shop near our college called shamla (again named after the owner whose sister it was rumoured had a crush on one of my class mates). It served lime juice in a steel glass and named it half lime. You could have a half lime for Rs 1.50. There were people who used to survive on the half limes and cigarettes from shamla. Inspired by this the hotel.com aka Shangri la aka razhakiya introduced the half biriyani (first in kerala) with half chicken and half rice.
The new canteen was leased by an old couple. I still feel sympathy for them to have taken such a dangerous endeavour at a late age. Vishal would go to the canteen in the evening and order a tea, then he would eat every kadi(snacks with tea) in the menu (including parippuvada, pazham pori etc). Unlike the mohanlal’s taste buds which charge Rs 150 for kadis these old people put only reasonable price tags. But human whims are strange and whims of vishal even stranger, he found pleasure in cheating the old lady who sat in the counter. He would have all the snacks in the hotel and go to counter to say “one tea, that’s all how much??” like a Good Samaritan.
Another hang out near the college was a hut which housed a chayakada. It was the favourite place of all the comrades including our principal because it served kattan chaya (black tea) and parippu vada( staple food of communists).
With all these places I ate the best food in my college days not from any of these places. I ate it inside the college. Yes I ate food like a savage along with 15 others sometimes from the same plate. Those were interesting days, more about that on my next post.......

My tryst with beer started when I was in 11th. Life was busy with action shifting from one coaching centre to the other in search of tablets which would arm me to face entrance examination. At this point I got intrigued by this drink which was known for its bitter taste. A friend of mine invited me to his home to have a sip. It tasted the same way as I expected, very bitter. But it had a heat which gave profound sense of elation. The next thing I did was run to my physics tuition class. I remember myself seated in the back bench as a grown up among my class mates when they smelled the thick aroma of beer.

Then I got into my college and was a teetotaller throughout my first year except for two occasions. A place for drinking beer is as important as the place where we drink it. This is called ambience. The setting, the light, the waiter, the music, even the pickles have its unique impact on me. My first entry to a bar was initiated by my cousin in fort kochi. Ranjith and I went to fort kochi in an afternoon. When we reached near the Dutch cemetery we saw a film unit shooting a rain sequence. We also heard tamil being spoken by the crew members. We ran to the entrance of cemetery expecting to catch a glimpse of the rain song with a sari clad heroine dancing with an ugly hero. But we saw indrajit and prithviraj (at that time the worst rated actors) holding gun on some north Indian villain. The disillusionment prompted by that took us to a local bar, where I had my first drink in a bar. We still have doubts on whether that bar was a brothel, because we saw silhouettes of some women passing by in the top floor.

The next occasion was the night when the first company visited our college for placements. I didn’t make it through interview. I was shattered and went with Nipun to the famous bar in kalamassery. Interestingly we were a bit high when Nipun started lecturing me on the importance of cutting moustache when you are facing an interview. After making sure that I overcame the trauma, Nipun drove me back to college.

Those were the early days, then drinking became a routine (I don’t consider it as a case of moral depravity as seen by some virtuous teetotallers. History proves a testament to the fact that teetotallers have done more damage to world than drunkards. Examples are many). Beer gave me some of the memorable nights in my life. The night when Vinu hit the car to a post in the act of cleaning the glass while driving, when I got Ranees to show his true self (those who know him will understand) by calling him names, when I got drunk I and got myself into a giant wheel in shivarathri manappuram which stood on three cycle wheels (I swear I wouldn’t have got into that diabolical creation of human whims if I was sober) and cried “I don’t want to die before getting my first salary” (Interestingly that remains a dream and I did not get myself into that killer machine when I went to manappuram on this shivarathri, but Vishal being the devil he is took another friend of mine who cried out “I want to see her one more time before I die”) to name a few.

But when I look back it was not actually the drink called beer that gave me the high. It was actually the amazing people to whom I said cheers who made my day. My cousins with whom I had the best moments of my life in Goa (where poor Appu blacked out in bathroom with door locked), Varkala (where we knocked every shutter before finding a case of beer on a dry day) and my dear friends especially Nipun. Yes as the title says beer can get you laid even if you are super ugly, but it also gives you friends and moments that otherwise would have passed like the other mundane ones. So cheers to beer which has been helping people have fun since 1861.

Its election time again. Infact elections in India creates more interest in me than any blockbuster premiere or cricket match. I have been closely following all the elections from 1996. So I am fascinated by the idea of nearly 20 to 30 crore people going to polling booth (when in some so called fastest growing countries people are barred from typing democracy and freedom in internet). The appreciation truly goes to the founding fathers of our country, most notably Panditji. With all his shortcomings in the form of adopting a pro USSR stand and failure to prevent chinese aggression, I love him for building the nation into what it is today. Panditji's greatest strength was his education and ability to find the right people for institution building in a young country.

This brings me to another question. I must confess that it is a very sensitive topic which has invited innumerable lawsuits to the people who wrote about this topic. What are the educational qualifications of the so called prime ministerial aspirants in our country? Before getting into detail I should add here that a lot of people who are not graduates have become chief ministers in our country. But frankly they should not be judged by that. Most of them including Karunanidhi and Achutanandan had to drop out because of poverty. But they were able to come up in political battle field due to their extraordinary organizational capabilities.

But people who were affluent enough to have good education but still came out with poor grades should be seen as nothing but incompetent for atleast the top spot. I say this because when the question of who should become the first prime minister of our country came up, Panditji was given preference over Sardar because he was a better mascot to the world compared to Sardar. My case study is basically about one person who has dubious educational record as claimed by various websites and individuals. I should confess I dont have any resource to do my personal research on this issue, which is why I am quoting from various websites and individuals.

CPM in their website clearly states the educational qualifications of their leaders which is highly commendable. Prakash Karat has a Post-Graduate degree M.Sc (Politics) from University of Edinburgh, Britain.Sitaram yechury completed Higher Secondary (one Year Course) standing first in the All India merit list. In 1973, he completed B.A.(Hons) in Economics, first class, from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University.In 1975, he completed M.A., first class, in Economics, from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. Subsequently, he joined JNU for a Ph.D. degree which he could not complete due to his arrest during Emergency.

BJP has two leaders at the top. Vajpayee took M.A. (Political Science) Educated at Victoria (now Laxmibai) College, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) and D.A.V. College, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)post graduate in political science while Advani is a law graduate. Rajnath Singh completed Msc in physics from Gorakhpur university. Arun Jaitely graduated in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi in 1973. He passed his Law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 1977.

Now comes the fact file of the grand old party

Manmohan Singh- Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Panjab University , Chandigarh ,Stood first in MA (Economics), Panjab University , Chandigarh, Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St John's College , Cambridge , 1955 and 1957 Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge, DPhil ( Oxford ), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on India 's export competitiveness

Sonia Gandhi- Three years course in foreign language (English and french) from Turin( I cant ascertain whether this is graduation), Certificate in English from Lennox Cook School, University of cambridge

Rahul Gandhi- Here starts the contentious issue. His admission to St Stephen's College was controversial as he was admitted on the basis of his abilities as a competitive pistol shooter, which was disputed. He left the school in 1990, after one year of education. Subramanyan Swamy says this was because he failed in Hindi. Subramanyan Swamy who happens to have taken a Phd from Harvard at the age of 26 says Rahul Gandhi got into Harvard medical school in payment quota (Swamy claims $11 mn was spent for this). But he discontinued due to incompetence as claimed by Swamy. But various other sites say he discontinued due to security concerns. He then went on to study in Rollins college, Florida. What extra security he got there is not clear. As a matter of fact both Florida and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts are in US. Then his election affidavit shows he completed his Mphil from Trinity college, Cambridge in development economics. It is interesting to note that LTTE,( from whom Rahul Gandhi has a security threat) had a larger presence in UK than in US at that time. Now is the interesting part many say that Trinity College does not have a programme in Development Economics. These people claim that Rahul misrepresented Development studies as development economics. The site named Offstumped had the following to say "Offstumped obtained 3 official copies (2 physical and 1 electronic) of Raul Vinci a.k.a Rahul Gandhi?s Transcripts from Cambridge University and it is clear that his election affidavit mis-represents facts.
Misrepresentation #1 - The official copy of Raul Vinci?s transcript states that he read for an MPhil in ?Development Studies? and not in ?Development Economcis?.

It is significant because these are two different programs. MPhil in Development Studies is administered by the Development Studies Committee at Cambridge. There is no MPhil in Development Economics at Cambridge.? There is a MPhil in Economics In fact Offstumped confirmed with the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge University that Raul Vinci?s MPhil was not administered by that department.

Now this is no small error. One normally doesnt forget what one?s graduation is in be it a BA in Political Science or a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering.

So is it carelessness, amnesia or a freudian slip that Rahul Gandhi was so casual about providing the details of what exactly his MPhil was at Cambridge ?Or perhaps it was a freudian slip which leads us to Misrepresentation #2 - All 3 official copies of his transcript (2 physical and electronic) state that his MPhil was during the years 2004-2005.This inconsistency between the transcript and the election affidavit may or may not be significant. It was unclear from enquiries conducted by Offstumped if Raul Vinci's MPhil was not completed in 1995 and if as stated in the transcript he went on to complete it in 2004-2005 in the wake of the controversy that errupted during the Lok Sabha election.Its a mystery that can only be cleared up by Raul Vinci a.k.a. Rahul Gandhi and the University of Cambridge.But here is the rub on the question of competency. The transcript details Raul Vinci's academic performance which raises pertinent questions on his fitness to be a candidate for the office of Prime Minister.The MPhil Development Studies program requires 4 full papers to be completed and it lists 60% as a pass, 65% as eligible for an entry to PhD and 75% as a Distinction.Raul Vinci a.k.a Rahul Gandhi while not earning any distinctions in any of the 4 papers barely managed an overall pass percentage of 62.8%.But the real shocker is in the Paper on National Economic Planning & Policy, he scored 58% which is not even considered a Pass. "


This is exclusively the finding of the the site. I believe Rahul Gandhi and the sycophants around him have a responsibility to clear his name. Being incompetent is OK but telling a lie when you are aspiring to be athe head of the world's largest democracy is abominable.

Navakerala Yatra

This march led by CPI(M) state secretary started off with a lot of controversy whether the CM would participate in it or not. Anyway I hope when the march reaches Trivandrum all the problems in kerala would be solved. There would be no dengue fever in the capital city. All the extremist holed upon in various parts of kerala would run out of the state like mosquitoes. Bombs can be made in police stations as envisaged by the home minister to smoke off these elements from our environment. All the gulf expatriates who are going to come back to the state in coming months after losing jobs could be given study classes on how to sustain with parippuvada and black tea.I sincerely hope that the march would put an end to the power crisis in the state by boycotting American nuclear reactors and attracting more lavalin like investments (this time we can ask a power company to build a water theme park instead of a cancer centre). I request the CPM leadership to use a road roller in their convoy so that at least some potholes in the road they are marching from Kasargod would be mended.

Save Kerala Yatra

This Yatra led by Ramesh Chennithala, KPCC president is again from kasargod with speculation whether K Karnakaran will participate in it or not over Rajya Sabha seat row. I earnestly call on all human rights organizations to take up the case of both Mr K Karunakaran and Mr V S Achutanandan (both octogenarians) who are being forced from various sides to take part in Yatras. This clearly is a case of cruelty to old men and should be taken upto the highest level. Anyway with the end of Chennithala’s yatra the GDP will bounce back to 9.1 and the 50 million people who are going to lose their jobs would be accommodated in Indira Bhavans across the country to play IGL (Indian group league). The most eligible idler in the country would be made the prime minister so that the poor economist can take a rest.

Janakeeya Yatra

This yatra organised by CPI will solve all the problems in agricultural (portfolio handled by the party) sector in kerala. Kerala would become 100% dependent as far food grains are concerned and CPI would become 100% dependent on CPM as far as votes are concerned. For those who don’t like rice from Tamil Nadu can eat burger from Mc donalds and drink a bottle of Pepsi (Please don’t drink Coco cola, because they wont give ads in matrubhoomi) to quench thirst.

Nava sandesha Yatra

The funniest of all Yatras is led by Mr K Muraleedharan, NCP president. I sincerely hope that atleast his problems are solved after the Yatra. I request all parties to make him atleast a panchayat president so that his father can die peacefully.

We want another Rath Yatra

As the net worth of ambanis and tatas have reduced substantially we whole heartedly understand inability of BJP to conduct yatras in all states. But I request the party to conduct cultural programmes in all states like nun raping in Orissa , pub demolition in Karnataka, manhandling teachers in MP, and most importantly to disallow every Muslim in this country to walk fearlessly on the road. I request them to create ram temples in every nook and corner of the country, so that ram would solve all the problems in the country (this time by not sending his pregnant wife to forest)

Why are others waiting?

I request DMK to conduct a yatra for LTTE to solve the problems of Srilankan Tamils. I request them to send all the women who lost jobs in the textile mills of thiruppur to srilanka as human bombs. This would solve all the problems of tamils across the state.

Mayawatiji please conduct a Yatra so that you could increase your personal asset by 10000% (rather than 3000% after you became CM) and thus eradicate poverty and crime in UP.

Bappu are you seeing this?

78 years ago a lean person marched 240 miles against a mighty empire and defeated them by love and passive resistance. He did not travel in Mercedes benz or Volvo bus, he walked. His followers were not lured by liquor and money (in kerala the standard rate for a rally participant is RS 250 and Chicken Biriyani, I know because I was offered this). They came because they believed in India, in Gandhiji. I hope he is not watching the castration of this divine mode of resistance in broad daylight.

I am the rabbit
I am the rabbit who ran as fast as I could when the race began
I am the rabbit who got exhausted first
I am the rabbit who lost focus of the finishing line
I am the rabbit who saw all the turtles go past
I am the rabbit who lost the race
I am the rabbit who lost the race of life
I am the rabbit who got it all wrong

After two serious blog I had decided that the next post would be something light and personal. A lot of interesting things happened in the last two weeks. This blog is basically an assortment of those.


At Irinjalakuda

This time the trip home was eventful and helped me forget all the bad things that have been happening with me for the last 9 months. Vinu and I went to Vinu’s rubber estate in the eastern part of trichur driving his old but mighty tata sumo. The worker in the rubber estate has a good looking daughter (what you call the village beauty). I always mock vinu by calling him ‘Kochu mothalali’ reminiscing the old villains like ummar and jose prakash. Everybody would remember their class acts depicting rich youth who would regularly molest the daughters of their workers after sending them away. The most ubiquitous dialogue of villains of those days was ‘oru glass vellam tharumo’ (can I get a glass of water) before attacking the women in the kitchen. Poor vinu is always irritated with these accusations. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see her this time.

We also went to Pambumekkatu mana the famous snake worshipping temple near Mala. It is a customary practice to get inside the temple with wet mundu after dipping in the nearby pond. When we were to enter the temple one of the guards stopped us and asked in a low tone- ‘’are u nairs?’’. We said yes and got in. Suddenly I remembered that the temple is one of the last places in kerala where lower caste people are still barred from entering. I am not a racist but it felt good to enter a place where there is reservation for forward caste people.

Near our tharavadu there is a B grade theatre which is incidentally larger than most of the theatres in cochin. I have seen a lot of movies in that theatre in my childhood days. It has been a long time since I last visited the theatre. This time it was the latest james bond flick ‘quantum of solace’. I went with my cousins vinu and nithu. It was real fun because we were the only audience in the balcony. Vinu and I even thought of bringing some brandy from home at the interval though we did not do that. Vinu went back to Bangalore on Sunday.

Seeing new people

I went to trichur and with vijayini cheriamma set off to invite our relatives for the marriage of my cousin. I haven’t gone to most of these homes spread around irinjalakuda. Anyway one thing I can swear is my hometown is the most beautiful place in the world. It was a great experience to drive through paddy fields and small water bodies on country roads. All the new people I met were warm and nice.

Technopreneur 2009

I went to ernakulam to attend the annual seminar conducted by Yi (junior body of CII) of which I was a member. It was conducted in gokulam park hotel with a lavish budget. It was a wonderful experience especially because last time when we conducted the event we had a very small budget and it feels good to see the event growing. The speech of sharath babu the IIM A alumnus who rejected offers of MNCs to become the idli magnate of india was truly captivating. It was a very innocent and rhetoric less discourse about his journey from the slums of Chennai to become a millionaire. His dream of becoming an education minister at 41, health minister at 46, and finance minister at 51 though impractical is a silver lining to the current political situation. The very thought of aspiring to changing the country by entering politics among educated men is a welcome sign especially when they are not inheritors of political dynasties. We had another budding politician for the event (who incidentally switched back to her previous Christian surname though married to a hindu to appease the supreme leader of her party) who made the funniest remark ever that politicians should become entrepreneurs (and not vice versa). Thank you for speaking your mind out Young Turk.

The director of VSSC, who is the head of chandrayaan team, Mr Radhakrishnan was the last speaker. My father had asked me to meet him. Though I was initially reluctant, persistent cajoling from Lakshman made me go and meet him. We then went to his room where he said his father and my grandfather were friends. I suddenly started wondering whether he really knew who I am and had mistaken me as someone else. I had never heard such a story. Then he said about Sreedevi dictionary when my bulb glowed. He was actually referring to my maternal grandfather who was a renowned lexicographer who completed a mammoth Malayalam-English dictionary. It was a tryst with a great legacy and personal ignominy when he asked me “what are you doing these days’’

I came back to Trivandrum yesterday. The dull life is back after a good week. My father is calling, I have to go, I need to drop the mechanic who brought my bike after servicing back to the workshop. When you are unemployed the first casualty is your dignity.

I saw a very good movie ‘The American President’ recently in TV. It is not a political drama, but a romantic comedy featuring Michael Douglas (my dear friends would definitely remember him in basic instinct). The movie ends with a captivating speech by Douglas which turns the tide in favour of him in the story. The content of the speech was very interesting. He in the speech defends his girl friend who is under fire from opposition party for her act of burning the American flag 13 years ago. He says the idea of America does not reside on a flag but on the concepts of liberty, freedom and democracy which it upholds Liberty which gives the citizens to burn the flag and consider national anthem as just another song.
On Friday there were reports on national news channels about Shashi Tharoor (former UN undersecretary) disrespecting national anthem by interrupting it. He reportedly took the microphone and asked the audience to keep the right hand on the left chest when they sung national anthem (the American way) contrary to the ‘’lawful’’ way of standing in attention practised so far in India. A PIL has been filed against Mr Tharoor by an ‘informed patriot’’ asking the court to punish Mr Tharoor.
There are two aspects to the issue. One being whether there is any guideline given in the constitution on the posture of a civilian when singing national anthem. The second, whether any law which demands the citizens to respect some symbols and songs (even if I don’t like the tune of the anthem or the colour combination of the flag I am forced to respect or love it) in tune with the spirit of our constitution which assures liberty and freedom of speech and expression (without harming the tranquillity of the society). So if somebody dictates someone as distinguished and erudite as Mr Tharoor not only to respect the anthem but to respect it in a particular way (as imagined or conceived by him) it questions the very fundamentals on which our nation was built. The same issue comes up again in the singing of Vande Mataram (our national song). Vande Mataram hails India (bharath mata) as God. Now Muslim community does not accept anything other than Allah as God and are not ready to worship anyone else (keeping up with their stringent monotheistic doctrine). So they have serious reservations about singing Vande Mataram. Now we can’t question their right not to sing or respect a song. Nor can we force them to sing vande mataram.
I remember during my school days my PT teacher(an ex army personnel) asking me to keep the shoes (or feet) in V position, chest inflated (though I didn’t have much to inflate) and head held high when national anthem is being sung. So I used to look at my feet (whether it remained a V and not U or T) throughout the recital in assembly. It’s an army practice to stand in attention during national anthem and salute in a particular way which we inherited from the British. No one in this country has the right to tell me the way in which I should stand when national anthem is being sung (the way I should respect it). Whether I should prostrate, stand on my knees, stand at ease during the anthem is entirely up to me.
It is also worthwhile to note the way in which movies deliver an overtly jingoistic representation of respect for national anthem. Two Tamil movies stand apart in this. It is funny that the same Tamils whose persistent impudence towards national symbols prompting the hasty enactment of the earlier version of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act,1971(prohibiting desecration of or insult to the country's national symbols, including the flag, constitution, and anthem.) by state legislature of Madras take a completely different stand now. One is the famous scene in Roja where Aravind Swamy uses his body to put down the fire on the flag burned by terrorists. I remember enjoying the scene then (especially because of the fantastic background score), but later laughing at the sheer foolishness of a person who believes a nation’s dignity lies in a piece of cloth (or its desecration would harm the country). The second movie has an even preposterous scene. I don’t remember the name of the movie. The hero Sharathkumar (sabse bada budda) is a police officer. He is standing in attention during the recital of national anthem. Suddenly villains come and drop his sister laden with explosives on ground. He does not move (as he respects the country). The villains finally losing patience blasts her and goes away. He finishes his song and runs towards his sister who by now is just ash. I am shocked by the sheer frivolity with which movies handle the concept of nationalism and patriotism. They tend to give the message that the person who won’t breathe (to be most idle) during a patriotic song (national anthem) loves the nation more than the numerous social activists who fight for the rights of citizens in this country. I would seriously recommend the removal of all the acts and subsequent amendments asking the citizens to fake respect towards nation.

Last week when I was coming back from the city with my father I witnessed a big procession in front of Secretariat. It was a procession organized against Israel for their assault on Gaza and against Indian government for their diplomatic ties with Israel. The protest march was organized by the student’s wing of the communist party here (a bunch of people who derives a strange pleasure in vandalism). Their demand, Israel should stop their attacks on Gaza strip (if they are listening) and India should snap the diplomatic ties with Israel. The newspapers from the day of the assault in Gaza are flooding with editorials condemning Israel’s actions. Some of them giving a strange one-sided view of the whole issue of middle east crisis (maintaining a strange silence about the heroic defence of Israel amongst Arab nations). But my topic is not the Middle East conflict as such. My topic is the double standards that the Marxist party and their cohorts are showing in reacting to tragedies. My regular readers are as I know least interested in politics but I request them to read this because this issue is very close to my heart.

I am not a fanatic. Neither is I a proponent of Hindutva theory. I believe Muslims are part of Indian Diaspora and they are indispensable to the overall prosperity of the nation. But I hate people who pamper them, those who in the name of uplifting them mislead them. The main culprit in this respect is CPM (as a matter of fact the state in which the condition of Muslims is worst in India is not Gujarat or UP, it is West Bengal where CPM has been ruling for 30 years). Whenever they bring in issues like Iran, Iraq or Palestine to the forefront of our society they forget serious issues like development and better job opportunities for the largest minority of the country.

Let me take the issues one by one. As we all know Iran is a country which has consistently supported Pakistan in Kashmir issue in world stages. What moral obligation does India have in supporting them? If it is strategic concern, India should be more worried than US in case Iran becomes a nuclear power.

The stand of CPM in Iraq issue is the most ludicrous one. They recently named a junction near my college ‘Shaheed Saddam Hussein junction’’ comfortably forgetting the 80000 Iraqi communists who were killed by Saddam (at the behest of CIA). How abominable it is to have a junction named after a tyrant amongst Mahatma Gandhi road and Azad road. They make a travesty of truth when they accuse only US for the stalemate in Iraq when they know very well that Saddam is equally responsible for all the bloodshed.

Then comes the funniest part of it all. The two gospels of communist parties across the world
1. Thou shall only condemn those who kill foreigners and keep silent about those who kill his subjects
2. Thou shall turn a blind eye on the crimes of the poor and speak aloud on the crimes of rich (special exemption for Faris Aboobaker and Santiago Martin who are party sympathisers) because Lord Marx have told only the Bourgeoisie can commit sin and the proletariat is always righteous.

CPM always condemns those imperialists who kill poor natives in their pursuit for power (with rare exceptions like the Chinese in Tibet and Russians in Afghanistan). Imperialism is bad and it should be condemned but what about tyrants who kill their own subjects (whom they have a moral obligation to protect). Why CPM does not speak out against the worst tyrants of last century like

Stalin (who killed around 4 million people and another 6 million as a result of famines caused due to collective farms which the party still claims is a one way ticket to prosperity). Thus making him worse than Hitler

Mao who killed more than Stalin and that too for keeping himself in power (not for ideology) in the name of Cultural Revolution. It should also be noted that he desecrated thousands of temples (in Tibet) and mosques (in Xinjiang). For all those who think CPM is committed to Babri Masjid issue please refer-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution_-_China#Destruction_of_antiques.2C_historical_sites_and_culture


Then there are the lesser known tyrants in Darfur (where Arab militia with government forces kills 2 lakh people annually, the most heinous genocide in recent times which China covertly supports by providing arms with an eye on Sudan’s rich oil reserves) are comfortably forgotten with an eye on vote bank. Are those dying in Africa not human beings? The answer is no for CPM because they are not killed by Americans. Innocents die only when Americans (the rich ones) or their friends kill. When Chinese or Russians or Land mafia in nandigram fire at human beings, they are killing terrorists or extremists.

Two interesting thoughts to end the topic
Israel provides the most sophisticated missiles and radars to India (better than those given to Pakistan by China) which helps guard our nation. Israel helped us setup the external intelligence agency RAW as answer to ISI which stopped a lot of terrorists attacks in India and engineered the Bangladesh war to our advantage. So India in no way can snap ties with Israel.

I did not see a single communist party march against Pakistan after 26/11. Is the blood of an Indian not precious?

To end this let me quote Obama the president elect of US when he was in Israel last year ‘’if somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I am going to do everything in my power to stop that, I would expect the Israelis to do the same thing’’.

It has been more than 1 month since my last blog. I don’t know why I took such a long gap. Anyway nothing new has happened since the last blog except for some mundane days added to my purposeless life. But in the mean time I had the opportunity to visit a lot of temples. It started with the trip to thirupathi and tiruthani in the end of November. I tonsured my head in thirupathi (I didnt have a wish. I just asked to Him to give me something to feel safe about my future). I came back to Trivandrum in ‘Garib Rath with Rs 25 in my pocket’ (the worst part is though every compartment is air-conditioned you have to pay 30 bucks for a blanket. As I did not have that much money I was shivering from Bangalore to Trivandrum). Back in Trivandrum I went to Sabarimala. The next week I went to Bangalore to write JMET. The exam was very easy which means you think you have a chance but you forget that everybody thinks like you. Back in Trivandrum I took a trip to Thanjavur. I saw a lot of new places like Srirangam and thanjavur (two of the best works of human hand). I also went to Palani, Madurai and Thiruchendur. I really expected a good rank for JMET as every projected cutoffs indicated so but when the rank came it was a dismal 1569. One week later CAT results came. As expected it was bad (93 percentile). But seriously speaking I am not sad. The one reason for that is my father. He didn’t complain or scold me (I had a consternation about that). Thanks to him I am ok now. Thanks for Lakshman as well for being there and reassuring me that situation will improve (like the good old times). Anyway nothing much to write about. My routine is boring with torrentz and philosophy (my new craze). Don’t know when the manna will fall from heaven (hope I will be around when it falls)

PS: the word ‘hope’ as I discover now is the last refuge of losers like me

I am Back